An August visit to Chickadee Gardens

I want to blame it on COVID—those strange times that threw our socializing norms completely out of whack—but even with that excuse it had been far too long since I'd visited my friend Tamara in her garden in St. Helens, Oregon...

My last visit was way back in 2018—five long years ago! (*sigh*) This visit took place on August 9th. The weather that day was odd, I made a couple of stops en-route that day and actually got rained on! (sadly none fell back home in Portland) I mention the weather only because you'll see some strange lighting in these photos...

I started snapping photos right by the home's front door. What a great vignette!

The details are not overlooked in this garden, something that would be very easy to do in a garden of this size. Tamara and her husband/Facilities Manager run a very tight ship!

This was my first time seeing the "new" chicken house, La Casa de Frida...

It's a thing of beauty which pulls together all the elements of Chickadee Gardens / Blue Jay Lane Farms. The metal siding echoes that of the main house, the painted sign (Tamara's handiwork) pays homage to one of their original chickens Frida (details of the making here) as well as pulling in the blue of the nearby garden shed.

Once again I took photos of the chickens, only to have them turn out blurry. Sweet Pea the turkey gets all the attention.

Glancing over at the house...

And now wandering through the garden. The absolutely fantastic garden...

The chicken house (it seems too fancy to be a coup) is visible through the porch overhang of the blue shed.

I posted these photos in the order I took them as we walked and talked. Some are looking back towards the house...

Some are looking off in the distance...

Tamara has planted Phlomis russeliana to perfection. Those post-bloom orbs become natural garden totems.

The vegetable garden...

That cool powdery purple-blue gets me every time.

I believe she said these calendula were volunteers from a years-ago planting.

Grevillea x 'Neil Bell'

Absolutely covered with blooms.

Beyond Neil...

The artwork is by Michihiro Kosuge, Tamara's art advisor at Portland State University as well as the department chair for many years on and off at PSU. Tamara and David became close to him in his final years and have a few of his pieces in their garden. These are effectively Japanese fish traps in sculpture form.

You will be thrilled to know, Oscar the Agave parryi var. truncata lives on (it was a little dicey after last winter). Here are his good looking progeny

And Oscar himself...

Salix eleagnos var. angustifolia, aka rosemary willow.

Up on the deck you'll find these interesting containers... 

And now we've made it to the shady part of the garden, I was in awe of this Polystichum setiferum 'Pulcherrimum Bevis'. I'd heard of "Bevis" but I had no idea it was such a glorious beast!

Austroblechnum penna-marina, aka Blechnum penna-marina on the left, Saxafraga x geum 'Dentata' on the right.

Good ol' spotty dotty...

I love that mossy pathway!

Cyrtomium macrophyllum, I think I just stopped and pointed with my mouth hanging open. It's hard to tell just how large those "leaves" are. Lucky me Tamara has since tracked one down at Cistus and it's mine!

Just a few after-dinner shots now...

That's a new baby Agave ovatifolia at the bottom there...

I was given a bag full of veggies (and eggs!) from the garden to take home. Andrew and I enjoyed every last bit. Even the cucumbers were hugely more delicious than what we get at the grocery store.

If you enjoyed what you saw here then click on over to Tamara's blog Chickadee Gardens and subscribe! She does a weekly blog post and it's always always insightful and inspiring. Thank you Tamara and David for welcoming me into your beautiful garden and home.

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All material © 2009-2023 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

New plants from a trip north...

I always hope to make a summertime trip up to Seattle to see friends, but as I get busy the trip gets pushed back and back—September or October are much more likely. This year's trip was last weekend, luckily fellow Portlander Mary DeNoyer posted a link to the RSBG Catalogue on Facebook right as I was finalizing my plans. I was THRILLED to see they were offering the dwarf maidenhair, Adiantum aleuticum var. subpumilum RSBG so I put in a request. Pick-up was arranged at the garden nursery, rather than having it shipped.

A couple of pics from the garden...

And of my plant...

I am so excited! I was pretty sure I'd get a couple of small fronds in a 4" pot, but no... this is a nice hefty half-gallon. Yay!

Another plant caught my attention at the nursery, Xanthocyparis vietnamensis (Vietnamese Cypress). At first I thought it might have been a Cunninghamia lanceolata 'Glauca'...

But then I saw this! What the what?

From Plant Delights: "Eventually to 30'+, the foliage resembles a thujopis at maturity, although the juvenile foliage is quite feathery." Yep. That 30'+ part helped me walk away.

The next day my friend Erin and I visited the Kruckeberg Botanic Garden in Shoreline, WA, just north of Seattle. I'd never been and wasn't sure what to expect, but was intrigued when I learned they had an onsite nursery: MsK Nursery.

I almost had to buy this small Yucca nana, I mean just look at it! It's like the puppy at the pound who has those big sad eyes.

Such a photogenic nursery location.

Wouldn't you know. Dammit. I wanted to go in!

Here's my small haul, minus the Adiantum aleuticum var. subpumilum already shown. On the far right are a pair of Antennaria dioica 'Rubra' from MsK Nursery...

On the far left, bottom corner (above) is a tiny Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Chirimen’/ Hinoki Cypress that I picked up at a plant swap/book giveaway/meet up of people from a PNW Plant group on Facebook.

The event took place Sunday morning at a park in Tacoma, WA. Most of the folks toured the PDZA prior to socializing, but I started out up in Seattle that morning and didn't make the tour, just the post-event party. It was a great chance to meet some folks I only knew from online interactions—like Jerry of the blog Botanica Chaotica, who grew and offered up this adorable little chamaecyparis sprig.

The other plants you see in my haul photo are Lonicera crassifolia. Here's a photo of it creeping around at the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden (RSBG).

I've been hatching a plan for a "winter" container that included the lonicera, so when I saw it at the RSBG I grabbed a couple. Then I saw it again when I stopped at the Pat Calvert Greenhouse at the UW Arboretum. Smaller plants, but a smaller price. I grabbed two more.

At the Pat Calvert Greenhouse I also scored another small Lemmaphyllum microphyllum (bean fern). Yay! I am always happy to find this plant which inspires experimenting.

The last part of my haul came from this beautiful display of (mostly) tillandsia at my friends Erin and Matt's place.

I've posted multiple times in the past about the tillandsia and bromeliad riches Matt has shared with me, and this visit may just be the most generous yet. These are the plants once I unpacked them from my car when I arrived home. Pretty incredible, right? 

I've been too busy to take portraits of them all, but here are just a couple images of a few in their new homes. Tillandsia chiapensis 'Giant' behind our kitchen sink...

A big, beautiful yellow guzmania in front of the garden's orange wall...

A pair of ginormous tillandsia in the magnolia tree...

Another angle...

And a curly xerographica on the fence. I know these will have to come indoors soon, but for awhile they're making me very happy here.

All material © 2009-2022 by Loree L Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.